ONLINE FEATURE

Psalm 40

By Katie Ford     Of Rivers: A Chapbook

Vertical Divider


I am content because before me looms the hope of love.
I do not have it; I do not yet have it.
 
It is a bird strong enough to lead me by the rope it bites;
unless I pull, it is strong enough for me.
 
I do worry the end of my days might come
and I will not yet have it. But even then I will be brave
 
upon my deathbed, and why shouldn’t I be?
I held things here, and I felt them.
 
And to all I felt I will whisper hosanna for goodbye.
It is sweet to think of myself, alone at that very moment,
 
able to say such a thing
to all that was my life, and to all that was not.



KATIE FORD is the author of the poetry collections Blood Lyrics, Colosseum, and Deposition. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship and the Levis Reading Prize. She teaches creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.

SELECTIONS FROM OF RIVERS APPEAR IN VOLUME 49.3